Sunday’s “Real Housewives of Atlanta” was a roller coaster of emotions. We’ll start with the happy stuff first.
Mike Hill took his two daughters and Cynthia Bailey’s daughter, Noelle, to the jewelry store to show them the ring he bought for Cynthia, after asking all her relatives while at diner — while Bailey was present — if they would be okay with him joining their family in the foreseeable future.
At the jewelry store, he introduced all the girls as his “three daughters.”
Elsewhere, Cynthia met up with Marlo Hampton to see if she was the culprit behind SnakeGate. Marlo was so offended by the question that she actually teared up! She assured Cynthia she considered her a good friend and that she’d never do such a thing.
With that out of the way, Bailed celebrated the opening of her wine cellar with all of her nearest and dearest. Mike was planning to pop the question during the event and even whispered to Kandi Burruss to “stick around.” When Marlo arrived, she handed Cynthia a card. She read it aloud.
“Congratulations on the big opening of your new business. I’m sure it will be a success,” Cynthia read, before seeing who it was from: NeNe Leakes. She paused to collect herself, then continued to read aloud at the encouragement of Marlo.
“Cynthia, never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine that we would be in this place. I’ve always been a supportive friend towards you, and today won’t be any different,” she read. “I’m proud of you and cheering for you from afar. I hope you continue to have the courage to run after your dreams.”
Cynthia was in shock as she wiped away tears and hugged Marlo. Kandi was also crying, but Porsha Williams was not. She thought NeNe and Cynthia had more to discuss than could be resolved over a cheese platter and sweet note.
In the meantime, Kandi texted Kenya Moore to ask where she was and let her know she thought Mike was going to propose. Kenya replied that she was 10 minutes away. When she arrived, she told Cynthia — in front of Kandi — “So all of his family is here? I’m telling you, I feel like he might propose tonight.” Cynthia flipped out while Kandi tried not to lose it on Kenya. The second they walked away from Cynthia, Kandi let her have it and called her a “bitch” in a later confessional. Kandi was so mad, she had to walk outside and vent to Todd Tucker.
Later on in the evening, Mike put his arm around Cynthia, raised his glass and asked the others to do the same. “Guys, I would like to propose,” he said, making everyone stop dead in their tracks, “a toast,” he added, chuckling. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry. I’m sorry. To Cynthia’s new ventures. Baby, I have to admit, when you said you was opening up a wine bar, I was like, ‘Why is she opening a wine bar? She don’t know nothing about wine.’ I know you like to drink wine, I know you like to drink a lot of wine, but like you said, like a fine wine, you age well, you’re graceful, you’re classy and I know anything you put your mind to, you’re a boss. It’s gonna be highly and uber-successful. So with that being said, I’d like to raise my glass…”
One of Mike’s daughters interrupted to say he was doing it wrong. She handed him a pink bottle of wine and said he had to use that for the toast. “What’s this? You want me to pop this?” Mike asked, staring at the bottle, which had a giant question mark on it. Cynthia immediately knew what was happening and repeated “stop” as Mike pulled out the stunning rock and her friends screamed their heads off.
“Cynthia, you know I love you. You know you’re my love, you’re my life, you’re my heartbeat, you’re my emotions, you’re everything that I live for. And I love you, and I just wanna spend the rest of my life with you. Baby, you have accepted me for my past, you’re here for me for my present, now I want you to be my forever,” Mike said, getting down on one knee. “Will you marry me?” The three daughters then came behind them and held up two heart halves with everyone’s name on it. When put together, the heart read “family.”
Wipe away your tears because the rest of the episode was filled with drama. Kenya, Marc Daly, Kandi, Todd, Cynthia and Mike decided to get together for dinner. In the car on the way to the triple date, Kenya told Marc about the engagement. She said she “had a feeling” it was going to happen, but Marc wasn’t buying it. “You snitched. You sold out the guy. Big surprise,” he muttered to himself. She later admitted she had become “more passive” in her relationship because she’d rather “avoid a situation than get caught up in an argument that leads to nowhere.”
Once at the restaurant, the ladies decided to do a wife swap, meaning they all sat in front of husbands who weren’t theirs. Cynthia’s proposal came up, prompting Kenya to ask Marc to tell everyone how he popped the question. He said Kenya had surprised him in New York in the middle of the night, “so I ran inside and grabbed the ring and ran back outside… I said, ‘Look who’s official now.'” When he saw no one had a great reaction to the story, he said he “thought it was fine.”
But Kenya said Marc was way more romantic on their actual wedding day. “That was the happiest day of my life, second to winning Miss USA,” she said. Everyone was jolted by her statement, so she jokingly added, “Eh, neck and neck.” No mention of her daughter, Brooklyn.
Kandi started talking about how difficult conversation was to ask Todd to sign a prenup, but he eventually did. That’s when Kenya said Marc didn’t want one. “He didn’t even wanna have the conversation,” she said, as Marc fired back, “We never talked about a prenup.” Kenya said they did. Marc said that was “revisionist history.”
“For me, if you bring up prenup to me, it’s over,” he stated. “I’m not gonna marry someone if they have a prenup. If you’re like with me, you’re all the way with me, or you not with me.”
Kenya began to explain that she’s been “self-made” since age 17, but Marc interrupted to say Kenya Moore Hair Care was a mess until he stepped in. Kandi reigned in the conversation by asking Marc what he would do if things were to go south and Kenya wanted one of his restaurants.
“Good question. You know what I told her? ‘You could have it. I’ll build another one,'” Marc said. “I told her that. ‘You could have everything. Just take it all. Take everything, I don’t care. I built it from scratch. I’ll do it again!”
Kenya was not pleased with the rant.
“We’re different in a lot of ways,” Marc replied when Kandi asked what they’ve learned about each other in their two-year marriage. “Ken likes a little flash, you know what I mean?”
“When you say flash, though,” she interrupted, which Marc didn’t like. “Lemme finish ’cause you jumpin’ in. You gotta respect the conversation. Opposites attract, but you gotta respect people and their differences. And it’s fine, but for me, I don’t wanna be Mr. Flashy. The flash is not real.”
“I don’t necessarily think I like flash,” Kenya replied, visibly upset. “I’m a self-made person, and I’m very proud of that fact. So with that said, remember we had a conversation about me driving the Bentley before we got married?”
“I didn’t say that,” Marc barked back. “What did you say then?” Kenya asked. “Can I respond?” he fired back. “I didn’t say about the Bentley. I said, ‘Let’s take care of the house before we take care of the Bentley.'”
“But my house is paid for,” Kenya hurled back, “so if I wanna buy a car, it’s my money. If I wanna drive a Bentley, so be it.” Marc said he’d rather spend time with real, nice, respectful people. He mentioned that NeNe was one of them, which angered Kenya. After all, NeNe said that Kenya was pregnant with a “buffalo” last season.
Both Mike and Todd lightly tried to explain that someone who hurts their wives also hurts them. Kenya shook her head in agreement, then stood up to give a toast. It was really uncomfortable. She thanked Cynthia and Kandi for being ride-or-die friends/wives and said she hoped all the men were the same.
Before we wrap this up, we also need to mention Porsha being asked by an off-camera producer if she had given Dennis McKinley “the cookies” yet, seeing as though they appeared to be “all the way back together.” She maintained, “No! No, I have not. Nope. No, no, no. See, now I know exactly what I wanna do, and I know exactly what we have to do. We gotta get it right, we have work to do, so no. The cookie jar is definitely closed. It is no longer ajar.”
Though the cookie jar may be closed, Porsha did put the engagement ring back on her finger.
“The Real Housewives of Atlanta” airs Sundays at 8 p.m. on Bravo.
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